Government forgets its priorities

I totally agree with the June 11 editorial “Cease promoting nuclear power.” I am neither an expert on nuclear technology nor an anti-nuclear activist, to be sure, but one thing I can easily surmise is that nuclear technology is not so much hard to deal with as it is fatal.

More than 27 months since the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, we still find serious problems at the site. They have no choice except to use makeshift decontamination facilities (located in a devastated and dormant area) for cooling water contaminated by radioactive substances.

We continue to hear of accidents such as an electricity outage that might have induced another meltdown in the worst case, an accidental short circuit caused by a rat, and the leakage of contaminated water.

We are flabbergasted, as these incidents remind us that the disaster is a long way from being put to rest.

Lately the central government has announced an economic “growth strategy” dubbed “the third arrow” for revitalizing the stagnant economy. They also have adopted a controversial policy to allow the restart of nuclear power plants. Some electric power companies have already started to prepare for this.

Before letting this happen in a hasty manner, the government first must promote sufficient measures for decontamination, decommission the crippled reactors and help evacuees from the disaster area rebuild their lives.

shuichi john watanabe

tokyo

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.